Ovarian cancer is a malignant (or cancerous) tumour that begins in the ovaries.

Although ovarian cancer is most common in women over the age of 50, it can affect women of any age. The risk of developing ovarian cancer increases with age.

Ovarian cancer is the second most common cause of death from gynaecological origin and the third most common cause of neoplasic mortality in women.

The symptoms of ovarian cancer are mild and not very noticeable and may include:

    •    Discomfort in the abdomen
    •    Pelvic pain or swelling in the abdomen with no
         pain 
    •    Bloating or intestinal gas 
    •    A feeling of being constipated or unable to
          have a bowel movement 
    •    A need to urinate or pee often 
    •    Bleeding from the vagina 
    •    Tiredness 
    •    Nausea, not feeling hungry, not being able
          to eat, losing weight 
    •    Having a fever

Not all patients with these symptoms have ovarian cancer.

The risk factors are:

• Family history of ovarian cancer (however, 9 out of 10 patients do not have anyone else in their family who have had ovarian cancer)
• No oral contraception (women who never took the pill are 2 times as likely to get ovarian cancer as those who took the pill for more than 10 years)
• Nuliparity - the more children a woman has had, the less likely she is to get the disease
• Starting period at an early age (before 12 years old) and having late menopause (over 50 years old).
  
  

The screening of ovarian cancer is very important: 9 out of 10 women who are diagnosed while the cancer is in the early stage, live.

There are three types of ovarian cancer:

    •    Epithelial cancers, which are the most 
          common ovarian cancers, grow in the cells
          lining or covering the ovaries. 
    •    Germ cell cancers start from germ cells within
          the ovaries. 
    •    Sex cord, stromal cell cancers, begin in the
         cells that hold the ovaries together and
         produce female hormones.

The ovarian cancer can be found in four grades:

Grade 0 - Borderline (grows and spreads slowly)

Grade 1 - Well differentiated (grows and spreads a little more quickly)

Grade 2 - Moderately differentiated (grows and spreads rapidly)

Grade 3 - Poorly or undifferentiated (grows and spreads very rapidly)

The prognosis for each patient is related to the extent of the cancer, its grade, the stage at diagnosis, the woman's age and her general health.

Increasingly, ovarian cancer is being treated like a chronic disease. The course of the disease may be variable with remissions and recurrences requiring repeat bouts of treatment. At every stage of the disease, there are survivors leading full lives after treatment.

The usual treatment is a combination of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.